Walk-in product merchandising display coolers are commonly used in retail outlets such as convenient stores and grocery stores to display a wide variety of different types of products to consumers. A walk-in cooler typically includes one or more consumer access doors that open into the store area to allow a consumer access to products from display racks and associated shelving positioned adjacent the access doors. Such walk-in display coolers also typically include a storage area located behind the display racks which permits both the storage of product to be ultimately placed on the display racks and provides room for employees to fill the display racks from the rear with products stored within the storage area of the cooler.
A wide variety of different types of shelving systems are typically used for holding and displaying the varied products to consumers from within such coolers. Some of these display systems are movable and some are anchored to the walk-in cooler floor. Some of these units provide a plurality of shelves which are vertically adjustable and positionable within a fixed framework which typically includes four upright support members each including some type of mechanism for vertically adjusting the shelving units positioned therebetween. In some cases, a wire rack is positionable within the upright frame structure associated with each cooler door and additional shelving is positioned on top of this wire rack. Also, importantly, the shelf dividers associated with these systems are typically not adjustable to accommodate differently sized products. Although some of the known shelving systems allow for the initial placement of the shelves within its associated framework structure, once this initial positioning is accomplished, such systems do not allow for easy further adjustability of such individual shelves into other orientations including into other gravity feed orientations or into a horizontal orientation. Still further, such additional repositioning of the individual shelf members typically requires all product from such shelves and, often times, adjacent shelves, to be removed so that the individual shelf member can be repositioned within the associated framework structure. This takes considerable time and typically cannot be accomplished by a single person.
Thus, there is a need for an improved product merchandising system for use in walk-in type coolers and the like wherein the individual shelf members can be easily repositioned both horizontally and vertically within the associated framework structure while the shelf members are loaded to achieve a plurality of different adjustably positionable orientations including a horizontal orientation as well as a plurality of different angular gravity feed orientations; wherein the individual shelf divider members are infinitesimally adjustable to accommodate any width product; wherein the merchandising system is a free-standing unit which can easily replace existing units, either individual or as a single set up across a plurality of cooler doors; and wherein the merchandising system can be a mobile unit which may be used as part of a shuttle system for quick change out of preferred products as a function of the time of day, or simply to replace sold out product.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.